One of my many obsessions.

An iPhone6 shot displaying an arrangement of a few different types of pencils from my collection. The red KOH-I-NOOR is from my youth. I’ve even managed to hold onto a small German drafting tool kit I got when my Mom, Sister, and I visited relatives in Germany back when I was 13 years old.

Making portraits.

It’s been noted that I have absolutely no problems sticking my cameras in people’s noses. This I can not dispute, and since I’m really not much of a studio shooter, most of the portraits I’ve made are street shots.

The folks I’ve approached are mostly strangers, but a few friends, co-workers, and acquaintances have agreed to let me get in their grill.

I’ve been contemplating entering my work in juried exhibitions and I spotted a call for entries at the A Smith Callery over in Johnson City, about an hour and twenty minute drive from here. The theme for this exhibition was “Portraits” and I spent a little time going through my Flickr stream looking at and deciding which shots I thought might be competitive.

I pulled out a good number of faves, but ultimately decided against entering. The cost was a bit out of my comfort zone and budget. I’m retired, on a fixed income. I really have to think long and hard about how I spend.

Orangemonkie’s Foldio2.

When first I heard of Orangemonkie’s kickstarter for the original Foldio, I was excited about the possibilities a portable lightbox could afford. The only problem I had with the first version was size. At only 10″, it seemed to miss the mark.

I was encouraged to see a 15″ model, Foldio2, and it took me a while to come up with a project worthy of the $69 asking price.

Unboxing the Foldio2 was a bit like what you’d experience with Apple products. Well thought out, tightly constructed, and cleanly packaged. They’ve even thought to include plugs for every conceivable location here on planet Earth.

The 2 LED strips with dimmers were easy to adhere, and adding any of the 4 backdrops was a cinch. The use of magnets to hold things together works well and is just brilliant.

It’s big enough to handle small-to-medium sized objects, small enough to store easily. The Foldio2 collapses into a nice thin, square package and it even has a useful handle at the top for easy transport.

The project? Along with my usual digital, pinhole, and instant cams, I’m going to use film cameras over the next couple of years and I want to share the images I make with my 35mm and 120 cameras. I’ll be using negative and positive film, if all goes according to plan. My film stash has been neglected over time and I want to use it all up before it ends up being useless.

As part of the project I want to include new shots of the cameras I use. I have a healthy collection that’s well documented on Flickr, but the images I made were shot with inconsistent backgrounds and I’d like to clean all that up.